4.1.6 Well as a Coherence-achieving marker 16

4.2 Application of Well in Different Contexts 17

4.2.1 Offering a Proposal 18

4.2.2 Striking a Compromise 19

4.2.3 Refuting an Argument 20

4.2.4 Expressing an Emotion 21

5. Conclusion 23

5.1 Major Findings of the Study 23

5.2 Implication of the Study 23

5.3 Limitations of the Present Study and Further Suggestion 24

References 25 

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the Study

Discourse markers refer to some small words or expressions such as well, anyway, I mean and you know which do not affect the grammatical correction or proposition content but pragmatic appropriateness.(Ran, 2003) Hölker (1991:79) proposes four pragmatic features of discourse markers: 1) discourse markers do not affect the truth conditions of an utterance; 2) discourse markers do not add anything to the propositional content; 3) discourse markers are related to the speech situation and not to the situation talked about; and 4) discourse markers have an emotive expressive function rather than a referential, denotative, or cognitive function. 

Since 1970s, the study of discourse markers has gained more and more attention from the scholars. There are three main theories under which discourse markers are studied. Famous linguists Schiffrin (1987) and Redeker (1991) study discourse markers from coherence-based perspective which focuses on their semantic features and pragmatic functions. As a representative, Fraser (1999) paid more attention to syntactic and pragmatic features of discourse markers. The relevance-based theory is proposed by Sperber and Wilson (1986) and adapted by Blakemore (1987) which proposed that discourse markers link the coherence of discourse as a whole.

Among those discourse markers, due to its frequent occurrence in the daily communication, Well has attracted many linguists’ attentions. Schourup (2001:1026) claims “Well has probably received more attention than any other English discourse marker.” Shiffrin (1987) studies Well in terms of discourse analysis. Jucker (1993) and Norrick (2001) discuss its functions based on oral narratives and etc. And it has been studied through different dimensions including the coherence theory, the syntactic-pragmatic theory and the relevance theory. In addition, the pragmatic functions of the discourse marker Well have also been investigated based on different datum such as talk show, TV series, novels, oral corpus and etc. And the present study will take the relevance theory to analyze pragmatic functions of Well in the data of American sitcom Modern Family. 

1.2 Objectives of the Study

There has not been a systematic study on the discourse marker Well, especially in the data of the popular American sitcom Modern family from the perspective of relevance theory. Thus, the thesis will study the pragmatic functions of the discourse maker Well in the American TV series Modern Family. The thesis attempts to answer the following questions:

First，what pragmatic functions does the discourse marker Well have based on the corpus of Modern Family?

Second, how frequently does every pragmatic function of the discourse marker Well appear in Season 6 of Modern Family?

Third, how are the pragmatic functions of Well exemplified in the theory of relevance study?

Fourth, how are four frequently-used pragmatic functions of Well applied in four typical contexts?

As to the significance of the thesis, the thesis can be a valuable practice to prove the application of the relevance theory. More importantly, the result can help English learners understand the meaning of Well better and improve the use of it. The practice of using discourse marker Well can enhance their oral ability to interact with English speakers as well as speaking more idiomatically to carry out a successful communication.